The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.